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For India's first solar observatory, 2026 is expected to be truly unique.

It's the first time the observatory – that entered in orbit recently – will be able to observe the Sun during the peak of its solar cycle.

According to research, it comes approximately once every 11 years when the Sun's polarity reverses – a similar Earth scenario would be the North and South poles changing places.

This period of great turbulence. It sees the Sun transition from peaceful to violent and features a huge increase in the frequency of solar storms and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) – enormous clouds of plasma that blow out of the Sun's outermost layer.

Composed of charged particles, a coronal mass ejection may have a mass up to a trillion kilograms and can attain a speed exceeding 2,000 miles each second. It can head out toward various directions, even toward the Earth. At maximum velocity, it would take an ejection about half a day to cover the vast distance Earth-Sun distance.

"During typical or quiet periods, our star emits a few solar eruptions daily," explains an astrophysics expert. "In 2026, we expect there will be 10 or more daily."

Studying CMEs is one of the most important scientific objectives of India's maiden solar mission. One, because the ejections offer a chance to study the Sun in the center of our solar system, and secondly, since events occurring on the solar surface threaten infrastructure on our planet and in space.

Effects on Our Planet and Orbital Systems

Coronal mass ejections seldom present a direct threat to human life, but they do affect our planet through generating magnetic disturbances affecting the weather in near space, where about 11,000 satellites, including Indian satellites, orbit.

"The most spectacular displays from solar eruptions are auroras, being direct evidence that charged particles from our star are travelling toward our planet," the scientist clarifies.

"However, they may cause electronic systems aboard spacecraft fail, knock down electrical networks and disrupt weather and communication satellites."

Past Solar Events

• The most powerful solar storm ever recorded occurred during the Carrington Event that disabled telegraph lines worldwide
• In 1989, sections of Canadian electrical network failed, affecting six million people in darkness for hours
• During late 2015, solar activity disturbed flight operations, leading to chaos across Scandinavia and various European airports
• Recently in 2022, a CME caused 38 commercial satellites being lost

If we are able to observe events in the solar atmosphere and detect a solar storm or a coronal mass ejection as it happens, record its temperature at the source and watch its path, it can work as advanced warning to shut down electrical systems and spacecraft redirecting them out of harm's way.

Aditya-L1's Special Capability

There are other space observatories watching the Sun, Aditya-L1 holds an edge compared to rivals when it comes to studying the solar atmosphere.

"The instrument is the exact size enabling it to nearly mimic lunar coverage, completely blocking the Sun's photosphere and allowing it continuous observation of nearly the entire of the corona 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, even during eclipses and occultations," says the expert.

Essentially, this instrument functions as an artificial Moon, obscuring the solar glare to let scientists constantly study its faint outer corona – a feat the real Moon does only during eclipses.

Moreover, it's unique capable of examining eruptions in visible light, enabling it to measure a CME's temperature and heat energy – crucial data that show the intensity a CME would be if it headed our direction.

Readiness for Maximum Activity

In preparation for the upcoming solar maximum, researchers collaborated analyzing the data obtained from one of the largest solar eruption that Aditya-L1 has recorded until now.

It originated on 13 September 2024 during early hours. The eruption's weight was 270 million tonnes – for comparison that sank Titanic was 1.5 million tonnes.

Initially, the heat reached extreme levels with energy equivalent was equivalent to 2.2 million megatons of explosives – in comparison the atomic bombs used in Japan were 15 kilotons in scale each.

Even though these figures seem massive, the expert describes it as a "medium-sized" one.

The space rock that eliminated the dinosaurs on Earth was 100 million megatons and during solar peak occurs, there may be CMEs with energy content matching even more than that.

"I consider this eruption we evaluated to have occurred when the Sun was in the normal activity phase. Now this sets the benchmark for future comparison assessing what is in store when the maximum activity cycle occurs," he states.

"The insights from this will help us work out the countermeasures to implement to protect spacecraft in near space. They will also help us gain a better understanding of near-Earth space," he concludes.